Daily Caller publishes old MMFA memo

2/13/12 1:09 PM EST

So a funny thing happened while I was writing that last item on The Daily Caller's effort to suggest that various reporters are willing outlets for Media Matters, the liberal media watchdog group.

Vince Coglianese, Tucker Carlson's co-author on the piece about Media Matters, has published "an internal Media Matters For America memo obtained by the Daily Caller [which] reveals that the left-wing media watchdog group employs an 'opposition research team' to target its political enemies."

That internal memo was actually shared with POLITICO's Ben Smith (now editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed) and written up almost a year ago. From Smith's piece in March of 2011:

In an interview and a 2010 planning memo shared with POLITICO, [MMFA founder David] Brock listed the fronts on which Media Matters — which he said is operating on a $10 million-plus annual budget — is working to chip away at Fox and its parent company, News Corp. They include its bread-and-butter distribution of embarrassing clips and attempts to rebut Fox points, as well as a series of under-the-radar tactics.

The timing of this publication is a bit unfortunate for The Daily Caller, which just yesterday suggested that Smith was a dumping ground for Media Matters' research and now finds itself sourcing the same material as though it were exclusive a year after the fact.

Coglianese does not cite Smith's interview with Brock, in which the MMFA founder said that his organization was preparing for an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at Fox News and a group of conservative websites.

UPDATE: Carlson notes that he and Coglianese do refer to Smith's interview with Brock in their initial article about Media Matters. They do not cite it in the article about the memo to which I was referring.

UPDATE 2: Smith has published the full memo in its entirety at BuzzFeed.